


Struggling To Breathe

by trixie_moon



Series: HQ Whumptober 2020 [9]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Abuse, Child Abuse, Day 11 - struggling, F/M, Gen, Illnesses, Mentioned Sugawara Koushi, POV Child, Post-Time Skip, Ushijima Wakatoshi Needs a Hug, but he's a baby, so naturally everyone is worried about baby sora, thankfully just a cold, that should be a tag, the first one, ushijima is 22, whumptober - Day 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26432242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trixie_moon/pseuds/trixie_moon
Summary: Sora’s sick. He needs help.Day 11 - struggling
Relationships: Ushijima Wakatoshi/Hattori Aiko, Ushijima Wakatoshi/Original Female Character(s)
Series: HQ Whumptober 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907605
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Creative Chaos Discord Recs, Whumptober 2020





	Struggling To Breathe

Soft crying. That’s all that Aina can hear. She pads down the hall in her nightgown, already mumbling, “Sora, calm down, baby.” 

She freezes when she peeks around the door. Oto-san is fighting with Aina’s mother. He’s rubbing Sora gently in his crib, trying to soothe the baby. But Sora’s breathing is labored. Aina can see her baby brother struggling to breathe and she herself is struggling. Struggling between deciding whether it’s worth it to get between her parents or not. 

She could get slapped or hit again, or worse, Oto-san and Sora could get hurt. But she can’t let Sora die because he’s sick. With her mind made up, she scurries inside, as quiet as possible. Her parents don’t notice, but she doesn’t thank anyone for that. Oto-san is being yelled at. He’s being yelled at and Aina can see him crumbling and he isn’t supposed to be crumbling, he’s supposed to be Oto-san and he’s supposed to be strong and happy....not weak and sad. 

Aina reaches into the crib and picks up her baby brother. He immediately calms down in her arms and she breathes a sigh of relief. She sneaks out, and neither of her parents have noticed. 

They’re screaming too loudly anyways. 

* * *

Sora feels hot under her touch and Aina doesn’t know why he’s like that. He can’t be sick, he can’t. Or else he’ll be hurt and Oto-san will be stressed. And if he is stressed, then she will get what she wants She’ll hurt Aina and everyone she cares about. 

So Aina hides in the bathroom and locks the door. She sets Sora down in his baby bouncer so her hands are free and she fills up the humidifier like Oto-san taught her when she and Sora were both sick in bed with the flu. Flipping the little switch so that the stream begins to emerge from the white machine, Aina pushes Sora towards the humidifier. He hasn’t calmed down, his breathing is still labored. 

Aina finally takes a good look at him. Her baby brother is covered in purple bruises and isn’t even wearing pajamas. He’s in a simple onesie, leaving his arms and legs exposed and they are purple. Aina remembers the same lesson that Oto-san gave her at age five. Bruises were a special kind of ouchie and they needed ice to get better. But he also said that if Sora ever had them, she needed to wrap an ice pack in a towel first so that Sora wouldn’t be hurt worse. 

Aina struggles over what to do. 

Should she leave Sora here? That would probably be bad. The arguing outside the bathroom has only gotten louder. It’s only a matter of time before she realizes that Sora is missing. She’ll come storming in and take Sora and ignore his needs and Aina can’t have that. 

But she can’t take Sora with her either. The arguing is too loud and he’s only just begun to calm down. If she goes outside with him, it’s only a matter of time before he becomes fussy again and then everything will be worse because he isn’t safe in the bathroom from her.

Aina sighs. “Please be quiet, Sora.” She kisses him on the cheek, opens the door, and bolts. No one notices her and she’s eternally grateful for that. She doesn’t know what she’d do if she had to explain herself. Reaching the kitchen, she opens the refrigerator and dives for an inc pack and a towel. 

She’s more cautious when she returns. No running, no heavy struggles of breath. Just calm and quiet. She thinks there’s a song Tendou-san would sing whenever this happened. She remembers from the videos Oto-San showed her of them as teenagers before she was born. Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious!

She creeps into the bathroom and sighs, shutting the door behind her with a click. Sora isn’t asleep yet, but he’s quiet. He’s breathing much better and Aina gently ices his bruises. She doesn’t want to think about them or why he has them. 

After all, it wasn’t her idea to hit the baby that _didn’t do anything._

She remembers one of the lessons Suga-sensei taught her just a few weeks ago when she started school. Hitting was not nice, even if someone did something bad. But Aina already knows that. She tries her hardest to be a good girl for her parents but Aiko still hurts her. Aina knows that her baby brother also tries his best, but Sora is only a baby. 

He doesn’t know any better. 

And he’s sick.

* * *

Finally, after what seems like hours, there’s gentle knocking on the door. Aina peeps through the keyhole and breathes a sigh of relief. It’s her father. 

“Aina.” he says. “Please open the door. It’s just me.”

“Yes, Oto-san,” she says and she opens the door so her father can come inside and scoop up Sora. He struggles in Oto-san’s grip, as if he’s afraid of being dropped or hurt. 

Aina feels a pain in her chest. That’s what she already feels like. Sora shouldn’t be feeling that way. She wants to cry when her father says something else, but this time it’s not out of sadness, but of joy. 

“Please get in the car with your and your brother’s things. We’re leaving.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,”

Aina sighs in relief. The six-year-old rushes down the hall, her socked feet pattering against the tiled floor of the house. 

* * *

Aina waits patiently in the car for Oto-san. When she sees him coming up the driveway with her baby brother in his arms, she opens the door and wordlessly takes him. There were no words she could say to abate Oto-san’s anger with his wife, Aina and Sora’s mother. She knows he is also hurt and struggling with this.

Aiko hurt him too. 

Sora shivers in his car seat next to Aina, whimpering softly. Aina gently rubs circles into his knees, shushing him the same way that she has seen Oto-san do it so many times before. But he doesn’t calm down. He’s struggling to breathe again without the humidifier to open his chest, and his breaths are gasp like. 

She presses a hand to his forehead like she’s seen their father do so many times whenever they were sick.

It is white-hot.

“Oto-san…Sora’s sick.” she says. 


End file.
